FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT TAX MONEY - PAGE 2

With two days remaining to pay real estate tax bills without penalty, the Jim Thorpe Area School District has received less than a quarter of the money due from Jim Thorpe property owners, and the borough has seen a tax shortfall as well. District and borough officials say Jim Thorpe Tax Collector Peter Batovsky has been slow in processing payments and turning over the tax money he has collected this year, following his unsuccessful bid for re-election. "Peter is just so far behind," said borough Councilwoman Edith Lukasevich.

By Scott Kraus and Matt Assad, Of The Morning Call | December 29, 2012

Over the next three decades, hundreds of millions of state tax dollars will be poured into revitalizing downtown Allentown, with little state scrutiny. Most of that money will be diverted from the state budget coffers, but no state or independent agency will be monitoring how the money is spent or whether its use complies with state law. The oversight will be left almost entirely to the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority, the locally appointed nine-member board that administers the funding program.

With two days remaining to pay real estate tax bills without penalty, the Jim Thorpe Area School District has received less than a quarter of the money due from Jim Thorpe property owners, and the borough has seen a tax shortfall as well. District and borough officials say Jim Thorpe Tax Collector Peter Batovsky has been slow in processing payments and turning over the tax money he has collected this year, following his unsuccessful bid for re-election. "Peter is just so far behind," said borough Councilwoman Edith Lukasevich.

The state law creating Allentown's Neighborhood Improvement Zone gives the state no power to dictate how the city spends the state's tax collections, so the Allentown arena authority Wednesday took the unusual step of formally agreeing to, well, behave. The Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone Development Authority unanimously adopted a policy stating that its first priority will be to return all excess NIZ funds back to the taxing bodies that pledged them. In other words, after using the NIZ tax money each year to pay the roughly $11 million annual debt for the $177 million hockey arena, it will return the excess back to the state and school district, rather than drumming up new city projects to use up the money.

People wake up,our tax money is keeping this white elephant, the Lehigh Valley Zoo, afloat! It was supposed to be self-sufficient in 2009. I was taught that if you start a business and it can't make money, you close the doors. I guess since tax money is involved it is all right to keep wasting it. This is why goverment should not be involved. Carl Sell Jr. Macungie

Since the arrival of the Great Recession and a governor who isn't fond of delivering big cardboard checks, Lehigh Valley developers have found a new investor to help their projects get off the ground: You, the local taxpayer. Through Tax Increment Financing, towns can detour millions of dollars in tax collections to developers who use the money to finance projects that might not otherwise get done. So, for Weisenberg Township to get the $114 million West Hills Business Center and the 1,500 jobs that may come with it, taxpayers will relinquish $24.6 million in new tax revenues.

To the Editor: Stop picking on farmers again! We, the taxpayers, benefit from our tax money helping farmers to survive. We benefit by having homegrown foods instead of depending on imports -- less costly and better for our economy. Something else I realized: Farmers' losses are never reported. Weather conditions and cost of equipment are only two factors, making farming much more of a struggle than years ago. As a taxpayer, I wonder where other tax money is going, such as welfare and food stamps.

As I understand the law, it allows Allentown to use tax money generated within the downtown district to be used for developments in the district. The cigarette tax is not generated in the district and should not be taken by the city. To me this is just another attempt to force taxpayers to foot the bill for private developers. According to the newspaper articles, the owner of the distributorship would make all the profit off the cigarette sales and then would get the tax money to pay for his own construction project.

To the Editor: A picture in the Feb. 13 Morning Call showed a Bethlehem city truck delivering wood to a city resident. It's pleasant to see government helping people. I would much rather see my tax money being used in this way then to see my tax money being used to send weapons of destruction to foreign nations who just won't learn to live in peace. What good is a government that doesn't help its own people and teach them to live in peace? FORREST H. GRAVER SR. BETHLEHEM

A minor league baseball stadium in Allentown is to be partially paid for by taxpayers. This would make me a partial owner, yet I'd have to purchase a ticket. Why should already tax-laden citizens have to bear the cost of a playground for the few? I'd like to use tax money to build a swimming pool and then charge admission so folks can watch me swim. If the baseball people want a stadium, let them foot the bill alone. Keep tax money out of private enterprise. What's next, taxpayer-funded football, hockey or basketball?